Volume 161, No. 158 covering the 1st Session of the 114th Congress (2015 - 2016) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“EPA GOLD KING MINE SPILL” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Senate section on pages S7541 on Oct. 27, 2015.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
EPA GOLD KING MINE SPILL
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, last month the Senate Indian Affairs Committee held an oversight hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency's Gold King Mine disaster. I am very grateful that Chairman John Barrasso and Vice Chairman Jon Tester quickly made this matter a priority for their committee following the August break. The hearing focused on the harmful impacts that spill is having on Indian Country, namely the Navajo Nation, the Southern Ute Tribe, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
On the Navajo Nation, an estimated 1,500 farms have been damaged by the EPA and its contractors when they released a deluge of tailings-
pond wastewater from the abandoned Gold King Mine. On August 5, 2015, an acidic plume of mercury, arsenic, and other metals worked its way down the Animas River in Colorado and into the San Juan River near Farmington, NM. Nobody yet knows for certain the total damage to crops, soil, livestock, wildlife, and water supplies that are critical sources of food for the Navajo people and also serve as economic and cultural centers. Those farmers who were able to shut down their irrigation systems watched in horror as their crops wilted.
The EPA now says water quality in the San Juan River has returned to
``pre-event levels,'' but the Gold King Mine is still releasing water roughly at 600 gallons per minute. The concentrations of toxic metals may not as be as high today as it was during the initial 3 million gallon flush, but the Navajo are still waiting for EPA to demonstrate it can prevent another large release. The nation is rightfully demanding assurances that heavy rainfall won't disturb toxic substances that may have settled in the sediment of the Animas River, the San Juan River, or even Lake Powell.
In August, I--along with Arizona Governor Doug Ducey--met with Navajo Nation president Russell Begaye and Navajo council speaker Lorenzo Bates in Window Rock, AZ, to discuss this matter. I can assure my colleagues that the Navajo are suffering deeply and dearly because of this spill. I have also received calls and letters from a number of concerned constituents, mayors, county supervisors, and businesses in northern Arizona who also have a stake in the health and safety of Lake Powell. They are just as alarmed as the Navajo people that the plume could endanger their livelihoods and their enjoyment of natural resources in their communities. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Arizona Geological Survey have been expending scarce resources to conduct water samples independent of EPA. And that has been helpful. But the Federal Government has to step up and take action that would allow all affected stakeholders, but especially tribal communities, find confidence in what the Federal Government is doing to fix the mess that it created.
At last month's hearing, we received testimony from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and others dealing with the spill, including the Navajo Nation president, Russell Begaye. We also received testimony from Doug Holtz-Eakin, a noted economist and former Director of the Congressional Budget Office. Mr. Holtz-Eakin estimated that the spill will cost the Navajo's agriculture sector roughly $41,000 a day in lost economic activity.
While I am grateful that Administrator McCarthy agreed to appear before the committee, I am concerned that, under her watch, not a single Agency employee or contractor had been fired for the disaster. In her testimony, Administrator McCarthy portrayed the EPA's response to the tribes as timely, but her portrayal was directly contradicted by the testimony of the Navajo president, who noted that it took EPA 2 days to notify the tribe about the plume's threat to the tribe. It was also revealed that Administrator McCarthy did not directly contact President Begaye for about 5 days after the spill. The committee also received testimony that EPA had not quickly and routinely shared water monitory data with the tribes. All of this shatters any notion that EPA has honored its government-to-government responsibility to the nation.
The Gold King Mine spill was a series of failures by EPA that compounded, and the Navajo are paying the price. I will continue to push for increased congressional oversight into this matter.
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